3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
I bought dahlias that in my own experience have the characteristics of good cut flower dahlias. Our flower stands are outdoors and get way too hot in the summer so choosing flowers that will stand up to that is of utmost importance. I prefer waterlily and ball types that have a heavy substance to their petals. I also prefer mostly smaller sizes, with a few spectacular big flowers for special events. Also, in our experience, some colors sell better then others, i.e. it is hard to sell pink bouquets of any kind! Part of that may be the shade on my main stand as it is back under overhanging eaves of a large old country store. This is better for the flowers but makes difficult lighting conditions, so the brighter my bouquets the better they sell! Anyhow, those are the criteria I used. I would have probably not boughten a dahlia that was not listed as a good cut flower at Swan Island.
I bought nearly all different dahlias. I have space for 130 and that is that. Any others have to go into my personal garden among the lilies and roses. That is also where I put the ones that failed as cut flowers but are pretty to look at, as well as the anemones and orchid types. I leave my dahlias in place for 3 years, and then divide all of them. I did have about 30 that survived last winter.
Oe the new introductions, I especially am liking Sheer Heaven, Diva, Bluetiful, Mango Madness, Andrew Charles. Other favorites are Bahama Mama, Dazzle Me, Fatima,Jordon Nicole, Loverboy, Moonstruck,Nicholas,Polyvention Supreme, White Polyvention, Rip City, Ripples, Sandia Shomei, September Morn, Sun Kissed, Vessio Meggos,Voodoo, Wildwood MArie, Joel Lousisa, Ahoy Matey, Bracken Lorelie and can't remember the names of the others.
I have other favorites among the Cowlitz River Dahlias, Clack's, Dan's Dahlias, particularly Sunshine Paul who just oped its first flower this week. Most of CRD flowers have not started blooming yet in this strangely cool summer, but are perking along.Ask me next month and I will probably have a whole new list :-) .
Thanks for the answers, Lizalily! As a matter of fact, I just got back from visiting Swan Island Dahlias at their Dahlia Festival. I really liked Diva and Honeymoon especially. Nick Sr. was awesome as well. My biggest surprise was how beautiful Innocence was. It is a pale pink and white one but was absolutley fabulous. I believe it is an older variety. Plum Pretty was another that really caught my eye. Also, the anemone Platinum Blonde was very interesting and I wonder why it is not considered a cutter by them, except that maybe it doesn't have a long vase life. It sure was plentiful and long-stemmed. Loverboy was a standout as well. And as weird as they are, I was quite interested in Junkyard Dog and Mars.
I realized that I didn't take many pictures of the individual varieties since I was taking written notes and I was too caught up in the flowers to want to bother with my camera while in the indoor displays. I did take some general pics of the fields that I'll have to post soon. I hope others will take pics too and post them here.
Thanks for the answers!
What you dont say is how mature the plants are now. If you planted them in decent sized containers and have been taking care of them then I would expect them to have started to flower by now or at least have buds.
If you are zone 4 like me, then you only have another month and a half of growing season (if we are lucky). I still have a couple of plants that haven't flowered, but they are over 4 ft tall, and I have been bringing in big bouquets every other day or so since mid-July from most of my plants.
I would go ahead and put them in the ground. Even if you dont get many flowers this year, the leaves will feed the tubers and they should be fine for next year.
Due to being out of the country one year, I only had mine in the ground from mid-July to mid-September. Most of them came back fine the following year.
I use the macro setting when taking photos of flowers. It's a little flower icon on my camera. I agree with the no direct sunlight suggestion. I also crop a lot. As long as the focus is clear I can later crop out what I don't want to get a nice up close shot.
When you cut, cut above a leaf node and that should send out two more branches with more flowers each. Each growth tip will produce buds: remove the inferior buds for a single fuller bloom per branch or leave all buds to develop for a more crowded bunch of blooms on shorter stems.
How long it takes for branches to develop into blooms varies by variety. By mid-September you ought to have plenty of flowers on at least some of the 100 plants.
Congratulations on your pending marriage.
That particular (and odd) bloom is just about on it's last legs. Maybe the next one will look much different? I'll have my husband snap another picture a little closer up when the next one comes. This one looked like it belonged in the novelty category. It's sure not the gorgeous bloom that I saw at in Everett WA last year! But I do have some great beauties to console me . . ..
How can I be sure it is a virus? I had used a mulching product this year called Mainely Mulch. It is straw and hay chopped up, sanitized and than compressed into a bale that covers alot but is not heavy. Have any of you heard of it? Could that be my problem? I will indeed discard the tubers this year and also cover my soil with a tarp to try and sanitize it. Any ideas on how to sanitize the soil other than what I mentioned? It doesn't seem to bother the flowers but I hate looking at it after sooo much work!
See the thread below. Did your blooms look anything like that? I've since read it was probably a plant infected with Aster Yellows. The plant was fully developed, looked healthy til the buds opened.
Here is a link that might be useful: Possibly aster yellows
Redraif
IF you have blooms not opening or blooming dahlias that are wilting, there is something else wrong. Are you feeding them? Did you throw any Miracle Gro on them at some point?
You could have a disease or a pest problem, lack of water (once budding), bad soil - any number of things. One definite no-no is Miracle-Gro or high nitrogen fertilizers. Dahlias don't like that.
And don't be fooled by garden store blooming dahlias. Their growers could purposely cold store tubers to grow and bloom when then the stores know you can't plant tubers. What may be blooming in August now may start to bloom in May next year.
Your best bet if ordering tubers from growers is check their catalog. Places like Swan Island will often tell you which are early or late bloomers so you can plan ahead.
Good luck.
Redraif
IF you have blooms not opening or blooming dahlias that are wilting, there is something else wrong. Are you feeding them? Did you throw any Miracle Gro on them at some point?
You could have a disease or a pest problem, lack of water (once budding), bad soil - any number of things. One definite no-no is Miracle-Gro or high nitrogen fertilizers. Dahlias don't like that.
And don't be fooled by garden store blooming dahlias. Their growers could purposely cold store tubers to grow and bloom when then the stores know you can't plant tubers. What may be blooming in August now may start to bloom in May next year.
Your best bet if ordering tubers from growers is check their catalog. Places like Swan Island will often tell you which are early or late bloomers so you can plan ahead.
Good luck.
Jroot--Since your wife is of Ukranian descent, I wonder if you grow the dahlia Ukraine Free?
I got it this year, but I can't say much about it except that it hasn't bloomed yet. I don't believe it is the dahlia's fault though since it got a late start in my garden. I got it from Accent based solely on their description that it is super heat-tolerant. I don't think I'll have a chance to test that this year since it doesn't even have a bud yet and by the time it blooms it will be cooler (I hope).
Somehow I knew that you built that little bird church. Maybe if you offered Coffee and Donuts, they'd come back. :)
Annabeth
No, Annabeth, I do not have Ukraine Free. I will have to "check it out" though. Thanks for the tip. It certainly has a nice colour. Do you know if it is a tall variety?
I just got home from a trip to Newfoundland, and have not yet had a chance to get out to see how the dahlias are doing. It is still dark out here, as my internal clock is an hour and a half a head of us still, which explains my being up so early.
Here is a link that might be useful: Ukraine Free Dahlia photo